Bryan Casler

Bryan Casler served in the Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan. He speaks of soldiers’ disrespect for the people of those countries. One incident in particular taught him how differently he himself felt about Iraqis and Americans: He was in an ambulance rushing to pick up a badly wounded soldier, when he suddenly realized from the soldier’s uniform that this was an American. “This was the first time that I was affected in such a way: I was excited about what we were doing, and then a second later, I was terrified.” He says the lack of a clear mission led to brutality: “The mission just becomes to come home alive.” Marines are trained to kill in battle, he says, and “it absolutely becomes that all you have is hammers and everything you find is nails, and you’re gonna crush every nail. And we’re crushing the Iraqi people.”